PRINCETON — Seven Princeton police officers have filed suit against former police chief David Dudeck, contending he repeatedly harassed members of his department with lewd and inappropriate remarks about people’s sexuality, sexual orientation and disabilities from 2008 until his forced paid leave from the department this spring.

The lawsuit, filed on Aug. 28, also names the town of Princeton as a defendant. It details nearly 40 incidents of administrative misconduct, contending that Dudeck was “patently abusive and created a hostile work environment in the Princeton Police Department.”

The lawsuit alleges Dudeck, who took early retirement Sept. 1, did everything from repeatedly squeal like a pig while imitating a scene from the movie “Deliverance” and asking officers about whether they “would take it that way” to allegedly suggesting that an officer shave his mustache grown for cancer awareness because it made him look “gay.”

Dudeck, a 30-year veteran of the force, was put on leave in March after the local PBA brought similar charges of administrative misconduct against him. The PBA complaint was withdrawn after Dudeck and the town agreed to a severance package in April, and a potential investigation by the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office into the chief’s conduct never began and, as a result of the retirement agreement, never happened.

The lawsuit also alleges Dudeck used gay slurs around two lesbian female officers, other women and other officers, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender.

Mayor Liz Lempert declined to comment on the specific allegations of the lawsuit yesterday, but she said that town officials handled the initial complaints earlier this year.

“We did the best we could to protect the taxpayers, but we always knew that we wouldn’t be able to protect against any lawsuit,” she said.

Dudeck is also the football coach for the elite Hun School in Princeton, but was placed on administrative leave there yesterday afternoon, a statement from Hun headmaster Jonathan Brougham said.

“In the best interests of our students, pending the resolution of these allegations, Mr. Dudeck has been placed on administrative leave from his position as head football coach, effective immediately,” the statement said. “While we are not in a position to assess or comment upon third party allegations or litigation, the nature of the recent accusations against Mr. Dudeck are of great concern.”

Matthew Peluso, the attorney who filed the lawsuit on behalf of the seven officers, said yesterday the lawsuit has been in the works all summer, independent of the complaint filed by the Princeton chapter of the Policemen’s Benevolent Association earlier this year.

Among the claims in the lawsuit is an accusation that Dudeck confronted an officer who arrested four Hun School students for marijuana possession. One of those students was a Hun football player.

“As soon as Dudeck found out that a Hun student was involved, all of a sudden he took a personal interest in getting one of my clients to not pursue it,” Peluso said.

The complaint details incidents where Dudeck allegedly used foul language and made lewd and sexually suggestive gestures and threatened retaliation against officers if they ever spoke out, saying they would be committing “career suicide.”

Dudeck also slandered plaintiffs with false disciplinary and performance allegations in retaliation for their complaints about his conduct, the complaint said.

The suit says that Dudeck, while talking to several officers, allegedly said he knew there were gay officers in the police department who were “not out of the closet.” The complaint says one of the officers was gay, but not living an openly gay lifestyle.

Dudeck was also alleged to frequently refer to the size of other police officer’s genitalia and mocked an officer’s loss of a testicle due to cancer, having once asked him, “How’s it hanging?” while standing next to him in the bathroom, according to the complaint.

The complaint also alleges that Dudeck frequently asked officers about their sex lives and used crude language to describe a sex act he performed with his wife.

He also allegedly made a lewd comment during the investigation of a sexual assault at Princeton University involving two gay students, sarcastically saying that the investigating officer was perfect for a gay-related sex crime.

Peluso said his clients are aiming for a trial by jury, and are seeking damages for emotional distress, pain and suffering, lost promotion, employment, wages and benefits. They are also seeking punitive damages and attorney’s fees and costs.

When town officials began severance discussions with Dudeck this spring they said they hoped it would result in an “orderly retirement.” The allegations in the PBA’s complaint were never made public by the town, with officials saying the issue was a personnel matter. But the hopes for a quiet bowing out have been shattered with the filing of this suit.

Dudeck joined the former Princeton Borough Police Department in 1983, became chief in 2009 and then chief of the consolidated Princeton when the borough and township merged in January. In 2012, Dudeck was paid $175,376. He is entitled to a yearly pension of about $123,000.

The lawsuit alleges that the town of Princeton hired Dudeck as the chief of the newly-consolidated town “despite knowledge of his discriminatory conduct” and failed to discipline him for such conduct. The lawsuit also alleges that the town colluded with Dudeck to hide his conduct.

“They still both made him chief and then really did not stop him from doing anything, but allowed him to retire with full pension and benefits. He was not disciplined in any way,” Peluso said.

Town attorney Ed Schmierer said yesterday that he had not yet seen the complaint and could not comment.